The No. 44 Oregon men’s tennis team took a beatdown courtesy of No. 7 North Carolina on day one of the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels simply outmatched and outplayed the Ducks and secured a fast 4-0 shutout victory, Oregon’s first loss of the season.
Oregon faces another tough test in Saturday’s noon consolation match against No. 36 Alabama, who fell 4-1 to No. 38 Virginia Tech in its first round match. Virginia Tech advances to face North Carolina in the championship match for a spot in the ITA National Men’s Indoor Team Championship.
“We ran into a very hot UNC team today, they really handed it to us,” head coach Nils Schyllander told GoDucks.com. We had our chances in doubles play but did not convert it into the very important doubles point. In singles, they were simply too good today.”
North Carolina’s Brett Clark and Brayden Schnur trounced Oregon’s No. 1 team of Kevin Farin and Jayson Amos 6-1 in the premier doubles matchup. Daan Maasland and Daniel Sardu were in a tight battle versus Esben Hess-Oleson and Oystein Steiro, who led 5-4, but the match went unfinished when Jack Murray and Ronnie Schneider clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win against Oregon’s freshmen duo of Simon Stevens and Cormac Clissold.
No Duck was able to fend off the mighty Tar Heels who dominated Oregon in each singles set. 27th-ranked Schneider rolled over Maasland 6-1, 6-3 while Clark handled Amos 6-3, 6-2 and Clissold fell to Steiro 6-1, 6-2. That was all North Carolina needed to complete the match sweep, leaving the rest of the matchups unfinished. The Tar Heels took won every set of the afternoon against the overwhelmed Ducks. Schnur, the second-ranked player in the nation, led Farin 6-4, 3-2, Hess-Oleson led Sardu 6-1, 3-3, and Murray led Stevens 6-2, 5-3 when each of their matches was cut short.
“Tomorrow we will face off with a very feisty Alabama team,” Schyllander said. “We need to get over today and get emotionally ready for a battle.”
Oregon falls to 3-1 as a result of the blowout, and the tandems of Amos and Farin and Stevens and Clissold fall to 3-2 and 1-1 respectively in doubles play. Maasland and Sardu’s loss was their first doubles match together this season.
In singles play, Amos drops to 10-4, Farin 6-3, Maasland 8-3, Sardu 9-3, Clissold 2-2 and Stevens 8-4.
After the Alabama match, the Ducks will flock back to Eugene in preparation for their weekend bout with No. 66 Nevada beginning on Friday, Jan 30.
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